Bredon Hill
As usual Mick collected Larry and myself and shortly before 9.30 a.m. we were sat having breakfast in a supermarket just off the Evesham By-pass. Larry insisted that we had a "full English" just in case we didn’t find an acceptable pub on our walk. With breakfast inside us it was back into the car taking care not to slide on the car park, which had a treacherous thin glaze of ice across most of it. Mick was suitably informed about the need for care as we "hit" the minor road that would take us to Great Comberton and the start of our walk.
Often the worst part of a walk is finding what looks to be a suitable place to leave the car and then to find the start of the walk. Today we were in luck. We found a suitable lay-by in the village – just big enough for a couple of cars – and only a few yards from the track (Russell Street) that went eastwards before it would join up with the track that would take us to the top of Bredon Hill. So it was boots on, rucksacks on and away we went.
Although I had a map of
the area, Mick was considering buying a GPS so a
couple of days before I had put the main points of
the route we would follow in my GPS and linked them
to form our route. Mick was now using it to see how
well he got on with satellite navigation and
although I did look at the map a few times during
the walk most of the time I left it to Mick to
follow the bearings the GPS gave him. However,
anyone who has used a GPS will realise that
although loading the grid points into it does take
time this homework will give you a good knowledge
of your walk before you start it. So I had a good
idea of the route.
Within about half an hour we had started the trudge
up the "Hill" and as the bridleway become more
broken I got my walking poles out to help with the
upward "grind". Although I have in the past
received many daft comments about "where’s the
snow" or "have you lost your skis", the use of
walking poles seems now to be far more acceptable
than it was a few years ago. Although most people,
including Larry and Mick, only use one I’m very
much in favour of two particularly when the terrain
gets muddy and steep, which it now was. I also
consider that just using one stick can throw your
balance out. But Bredon is only a little hill and
with the help of "sticks" in less than an hour
after leaving the car we were all on the top.
The views would have
been wonderful, but a slight mist hid the detail of
the Malvern’s, which we could just see as we looked
west. However, the mist did not prevent us seeing
the villages of Great and Little Comberton and
Elmley Castle below us to the north. For the next
half a mile or so we enjoyed these views to our
right and the company of a drystone wall to our
left.
From here it was a gentle stroll south west until we came to a group of trees which we walked through until "hitting" a path going north which we took to take us off the high ground. With the GPS giving us the general direction we soon passed Woollas Hall and at the nearby crossroads went left and in a few yards crossed the stile on our right. Soon we came to a brook, which we crossed, and from here until we got to the outskirts of Eckington we tramped through mud, lots of it, which added additional weight to our boots. It felt as if I was carry a kilo bag of sugar on both feet. It really was hard work.
As my map was only a
1:50,000 it did not show the detail of Eckington
but we knew roughly where the church was and
usually the pubs are close by so we headed for the
place of worship, and we were right. Two pubs very
close together so after peering through the windows
to ascertain the brew and asking the advice of a
local resident we took our trade to the Anchor and
it was great. They had a beer called "Piddle in the
Wynd", which I was assured by the beer expert Mick
as being a very acceptable brew. He was right. In
addition Thursdays, and today was Thursday, was
their steak day so we all partook of 8 oz rump
steak, chips, salad, mushrooms and other trimmings
for less than a fiver. It was excellent. We intend
to go there again, probably on a Thursday.
But it’s December. Days are short and we still have
3 or 4 miles to go. So soon it was boots on (or in
my case Sainsbury’s Carrier Bags off my boots),
rucksacks on and we are off once more. The next 10
minutes we walked north along the main road out of
the village until we met the River Avon. We crossed
the bridge and the stile on the right, and walked
across pastureland to Birlingham keeping well clear
of the cows. Larry likes cow on his plate but he’s
not too happy about meeting a fully-grown living
model. These did look harmless enough, but you can
never tell!
It was about here, or maybe a little bit before,
that one of us commented on the abundance of
mistletoe in the trees. In leafy Warwickshire we
don’t seem to get that much but here, in
Worcestershire, there was an abundance.
Unfortunately it was all quite high in the trees
and would have been difficult to get to. This was
probably good news for any local attractive females
as Larry with a couple of pints inside him and a
sprig of mistletoe can be deadly.
